Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching - The Simple Life

She was crying. I had never met her before, but I could feel the pain in her tears none the less. The paper that was in her hands was wrinkled from the hold that she had on it.

“Excuse me,” I said, “is there anything I can do to help?”

“Not unless you have a few hundred thousand extra dollars lying around somewhere.”

“Not any more,” I said.

She smiled at me then. The goodness of her soul echoed in her eyes. “I am really sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have smarted off like that.”

“It is quite all right,” I said. “I take it that you are having some financial issues. I can’t help with money, but I can offer my time. Sometimes it helps to simply spill your emotions out to a stranger.”

“I don’t know,” she said. She was looking at my tattered and worn clothes. I could see that she was a little nervous about me.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. Let me tell you about myself first. Then if you want you can talk to me.”

“Ok,” she said. “I could use the distraction.”

“About ten years ago,” I began, “I was a successful businessman. My company made a healthy profit every year. I owned a large house on the beach, a little sports car and even a yacht that I would take out on the ocean a couple of times a year.

“I pretty much had everything that I could ever want. The problem was that it seemed like I was always broke. I never had enough money to pay my bills. I came close to losing my house because I couldn’t stand the thought of giving up my yacht.

“My wife divorced me because I didn’t have enough time to spend with her. That caused me even more financial problems. Not to mention sending me into a severe state of depression.

“I really didn’t know what to do. I was ready to commit suicide and just give it all up. But I suddenly realized that suicide was not the answer, but just maybe giving it all up was.

“So I sold it all. The business, the house, the car the boat…you name it. I ended up with several million in cash by the time it was all said and done.”

She looked at me with her smile again. “So you never have to worry about anything now? You lost it all, but you have all that money to use whenever you want it?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, yes I never have to worry about anything, but no, I do not have all of that money.”

“What happened to it?”

“I gave it away.”

“You what!?!” I could tell that she didn’t really believe me.

“My accountant was not happy about it,” I said, “I told him to give every last cent of it to a local homeless shelter.”

“Oh my God,” she said. “What did you do? How did you live?”

I looked at her and winked, “I moved into the homeless shelter.”

She laughed. It was much better than the tears I saw earlier. “Cute story, but I have a hard time believing it. If it is true, why did you do it?”

“Well,” I said, “I was sitting on the beach looking at the ocean when a verse from my college days popped into my head. It was from my philosophy class and was part of an ancient Chinese text. It said:

Better to stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.”

“So, what exactly does that mean?” she asked.

“It means different things to different people. But to me it meant that living a simple life without the need for material things was the way to my happiness and that too much of a good thing is possible.”

“But how do you live? Do you have a job?”

“I don’t really need a regular job. I live with friends. I do all of their house work for them in exchange for a small bedroom. When I need cash for food and the like I do a bit of day labor.”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “I am afraid that doesn’t help me. I could never live like that.”

“You don’t need to,” I said. “All you need to do is find out what things in your life are truly important and focus on them. Everything else is expendable.”

Her brows furrowed. Her eyes held the contemplation of what I was saying to her. I decided that it was time for me to leave. I had helped her all I could, the rest was up to her.

“I have to go,” I told her. “I am sorry I didn’t have a few hundred thousand lying around.”

“That’s ok,” she laughed. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You too,” I said as I shook her hand.

I turned to look back at her as I walked away. She looked over the wrinkled paper she had in her hand one more time. Then she held it up and slowly started ripping it into several small pieces. She was smiling.